Win 8.1 file explorer fails to maintain thumbnails

droj

droj

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droj
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I sometimes find it useful to review image folder contents using Windows 8.1 File Explorer. But I find that thumbnails are only cached per viewing session and otherwise the cache has to be rebuilt each time a given folder's opened. This is tedious!

It's less bad for files that already have thumbs embedded, eg RAW's, since they load quickly, but many of my processed image files don't.

A fiddly workaround I found on the net was only valid until reboot, after which the whole palaver had to start again.

I just know that some people are going to start suggesting alternative image folder viewers, which isn't really my problem ...
 
Hi.

Wre the files stored locally on the PC or on a network share?
 
Thanks for input No it's not that, Neil - it occurs always and across all folders old and new - it appears from here to be a Win 8.1 design shortcoming. Locally, Daniel.
 
I can't offer a solution other than to say that I have no such problem on my Win 8.1 machines.

That said, I remember years ago that Windows thumbnails could go AWOL altogether and if memory serves (it possibly does not) the problem might have been caused by some Adobe software (perhaps Acrobat) being installed. If not Adobe then there was definitely some third party software which created the problem. I don't remember the fix, but Google sorted me out at the time. I have not used Acrobat for some years since.
 
Windows Explorer is not designed to be a fully featured image viewer, it is just a general purpose file viewer.

You are using the wrong tool for the job. I know you don't want to hear this but you need to use dedicated image viewers. There are good free image viewers such as IrfanView, Fastone Image Viewer or Zoner photo studio.

You will experience far less frustrations if you use the correct tool for the task you are undertaking.
 
redsnappa said:
Windows Explorer is not designed to be a fully featured image viewer, it is just a general purpose file viewer.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tutorial! I know that and you're not answering my wholly valid question.
redsnappa said:
I know you don't want to hear this but you need to use dedicated image viewers.
Click to expand...
Likewise.
redsnappa said:
You will experience far less frustrations if you use the correct tool for the task you are undertaking.
Click to expand...
To me the correct tool is the one I choose - for a reason. It would be more useful if the thread kept to the subject, instead of wandering off into autocratic sidelines.
 
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Where are the files stored? How much RAM does the PC have?

Only had this on external or network locations. Wireless makes thumbnail viewing painful.
 
Are you viewing hidden files and folders? If so, can you see the thumbs.db file in each folder containing images?
What happens if you delete it. Then browse the folder, reboot your machine and then browse it again?
 
I don't know whether this might help you - it's an article on disabling thumbnail cashing in Windows 7. I suspect the mechanism in Windows 8 is the same if not similar.
It suggests a program to check whether thumbnail caching is working (and shows where your caches are stored) and also shows which registry key enables/disables thumbnail caching.

Apologies if this not helpful
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/10794-thumbnail-cache-enable-disable.html
 
Thanks Dale - files local as mentioned, Win 8.1 64-bit, lots of RAM.

It's the fact that thumbs are being forced to reload every session (the Thumbs.db files being regenerated rather than permanently cached), which is the File Explorer behaviour I'm complaining about. Thumbs from RAW's and various jpg's load so quickly that it would hardly matter. The issue is with tif's, which do display eventually but take ages for the thumbs to be generated and to load. I'm not going to change the way I save tif's - they are how I need them to be.

Of course I have other ways of working but it remains an annoyance.

Daniel - I've taken a look there but Win 8.1 is different to 7.
 
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Do you have any third party apps that do system optimization or disk clean up?

Can you reproduce the problem in safe mode?
 
afasoas said:
Do you have any third party apps that do system optimization or disk clean up?
Can you reproduce the problem in safe mode?
Click to expand...
The first answer is no (I dislike bells and whistles). The second answer is I'm not sure if I can be bothered to go there, Daniel, but thanks for your interest ... my feeling is that the 'problem' is inherent in Win 8.1.
 
droj,

I've not had this issue on my Win 8.1 install and I've not noticed it on any of the Win 8/8.1 machines I've maintained.
 
But without it seeming to be a 'problem', Daniel, are you aware of the Thumbs.db files being forced to refresh at all, or are they just doing so very quickly without you noticing?

The chronic effect I'm noticing is undoubtedly a function of the size and nature of my tif's - but the basic question is why the thumbs should have to be re-cached (& in the case of my tif's regenerated) from scratch at all each time a folder's opened. Didn't happen with XP.
 
I also have folders full of large tiffs.
I'm happy to check it more explicitly.
 
Thanks, D, that wld be a useful reference - since my tif's have no embedded thumbnails they highlight the problem. With RAW's, File Explorer obviously accesses the embedded jpg previews and with them alone the process is so quick that it might not be noticed that the Thumbs.db file is being rebuilt.
 
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@droj

This sounds to me like your drives are not indexed, and/or superfetch and prefetch are not enabled.

Enabling indexing on Windows 8


Enabling superfetch and prefetch on Windows 8



These links are about how to DISABLE the services, but after reading them, it should be pretty obvious how to enable them as well.


That should sort it.

However.... if you have SSD drives, you may NOT want to do this, as indexing and prefetch cause excessive write cycles to the drive, which can shorten the SSD's life span. If you have mechanical drives, you really want all this stuff switched ON though.

SSDs are so fast you don't need it on really.
 
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Hola,

I browsed a slew of folders last night. None of them had thumbnails already cached.
I'll have a browse through the same slew of folders when I'm next using that PC and see if they are cached.
 
Thanks Daniel.

David thanks but that seems to be a red herring and to do with file searches rather than thumbs caching.
 
Since disabling indexing and prefetch I've had the same issue as you... have you tried it? If not... gotta be worth a go. If you have... then perhaps it's an inherited security issue from the root folder.




Group policy settings for thumbnail cache disabled?


PiqtVcW.jpg


That's a 7 screenie, but it's exactly the same in win8.
....running out of ideas now.
 
Thanks, will investigate now - I did follow your prev. links. But it's more or less a default installation (of W8) & I pretty sure I haven't turned anything off!

Right - Group policy Editor only available on W8 PRO!!! I'm stuck!
 
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droj said:
Thanks, will investigate now - I did follow your prev. links. But it's more or less a default installation (of W8) & I pretty sure I haven't turned anything off!

Right - Group policy Editor only available on W8 PRO!!! I'm stuck!
Click to expand...


b****r... yeah I'm on Pro... didn't even stop to think it would not be on other versions. Do only people who buy pro need to investigate and repair problems, or do MS think that anyone buying the home version is a retard that takes it back to the shop every time something goes wrong? That's pretty low of Microsoft.

Still the security permissions possibility though. Did you try that?

Default install or not... I wouldn't assume anything. It was a default install when you installed it... but any number of programs or processes may have changed settings behind your back.

Do you have a SSD? Windows 8 makes some system changes when it detects a SSD.
 
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Pookeyhead said:
Still the security permissions possibility though. Did you try that?
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Yes I'd done that previously but the effect didn't survive a reboot.
Pookeyhead said:
It was a default install when you installed it... but any number of programs or processes may have changed settings behind your back
Click to expand...
I run a lean machine.
Pookeyhead said:
Do you have a SSD?
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No, I spin!

I'm sort of giving up on this - it's not life threatening, just an unwanted nuisance. Maybe the next Win'll be different?
 
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It's at times like these I just re-install. Although I've not really had reason to with Windows 8. It's been brilliant.
 
Rog,

I'm getting the exact same behaviour as you. I've never noticed it before.
Images are on a NAS box right now, that's situated atop a largely empty chest of draers - I can hear the discs vibrating and reverberating crazily as I browse through a folder.

I've not noticed the behaviour before - but I've only recently installed an SSD and I'm wondering if that has something to do with it?

I'll investigate further and let you know.
Cheers
Daniel
 
I have a laptop with an mSATA SSD boot drive, which also holds my processed images. In addition it has two internal HDDs. I produced 42 TIFFs from raw files in Lightroom and from the SSD the thumbnails appeared near instantly the first time I opened the folder and on subsequent opens. I then copied the folder to one of my HDDs and this time the thumbnail creation could be witnessed as each file was dealt with in turn, at a rate of maybe five files per second or so. Once the thumbnails were built the first time there was no such delay on subsequent folder opening. I even rebooted in order to purge any cache and the thumbnails were once again displayed instantly from both the SSD and HDD.

Whatever the problem being experienced by the OP it does not appear to apply to my Windows 8.1 Pro x64 system. FWIW I installed the OS myself, starting with a clean Windows 8 on the mSATA SSD and applying the 8.1 upgrade upon release.
 
afasoas said:
Images are on a NAS box right now, that's situated atop a largely empty chest of draers - I can hear the discs vibrating and reverberating crazily as I browse through a folder.
Click to expand...

Network locations are not indexed.
 
I'm not sure thumbnail caching has anything to do with indexing.
And suppose you are right, why does a thumbs.db file get written to each folder?
 
Some of my folders in question are on the system drive. Each appears to have a permanently resident Thumbs.db file but it seems as if these get repopulated every time the containing folders are opened ...
 
I can't remember how the thumbs.db works exactly but I imagine it will do a certain amount of checking to see if it's up to date, if they are large tiff files it could take a bit of time?
 
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